Particle Theory for High-Energy Collider Physics

该奖项资助肯纳索州立大学的尼古拉斯·基多纳基斯教授和马尔科·古齐教授的研究活动。这项研究项目集中在与大型强子对撞机(LHC)和未来的高能对撞机相关的理论粒子物理方面。通过以比以前所探索的能量更高的能量碰撞质子，物理学家期望对物质的基本粒子及其相互作用有更多的了解。在这些基本粒子中，顶夸克是已发现的最大质量的基本粒子，因此它是大型强子对撞机物理计划的核心部分。另一种粒子，即所谓的希格斯玻色子，参与了许多基本粒子获得质量的机制，而确定希格斯玻色子的性质是当务之急。同样，对质子结构的精确估计对于理解质子-质子碰撞的细节也至关重要。所有这些问题都将由Kidonakis教授和Guzzi教授调查。特别是，这项研究将涉及最先进的计算，这些计算将改进对顶夸克和希格斯粒子产生的理论预测，并将增加我们对质子结构的了解。因此，该项目将通过促进科学在其最基本方向之一的进步来促进国家利益：发现和理解基本粒子及其相互作用，以及探索新的物理学。这项研究的结果将通过在被引用的期刊上发表以及在国际会议和讲习班上的介绍来广泛传播。该项目还将产生重大的更广泛的影响。它将让学生和博士后研究员参与基础研究，从而为该领域的初级物理学家提供关键培训。在更广泛的社区开展的外展活动将向公众推广物理知识。从技术上讲，该研究项目的目标是开发和实施能够改进对大型强子对撞机和未来对撞机上的大量过程的高阶QCD修正的理论预测，以及确定质子中的部分子分布函数(PDF)的形式化。软胶子修正将对涉及顶夸克的过程的总截面和微分截面进行重新计算，包括在单粒子包含运动学中具有三粒子终态的过程，如与电弱玻色子和希格斯玻色子相关的顶生产物，以及标准模型和新物理模型中的其他过程。将各种工艺的软异常尺寸计算到三环精度。此外，这些精确的计算将与选定的高精度强子对撞机测量一起用于专门的全球QCD分析，以限制重口味的PDF。我们将研究强子碰撞中的重夸克方案和因式分解定理，并探索涉及与矢量玻色子相关的重夸克产生的过程对确定重夸克PDF的影响。所有这些计算对于顶夸克和希格斯玻色子的精确研究，对于探索大型强子对撞机和未来对撞机的电弱对称破缺和寻找新的物理，以及对质子含量的更深入了解都是重要的，质子含量是精密强子对撞机物理中的一个主要不确定性来源。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award funds the research activities of Professors Nikolaos Kidonakis and Marco Guzzi at Kennesaw State University. This research project focuses on aspects of theoretical particle physics relevant to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and future high-energy colliders. By colliding protons at higher energies than have ever been previously explored, physicists expect to learn more about the fundamental particles of matter and their interactions. Among such fundamental particles, the top quark is the most massive elementary particle that has been discovered, and thus it is a central part of the physics program at the LHC. Another particle, the so-called "Higgs boson", is involved in the mechanism through which many of the elementary particles gain their masses, and the determination of the properties of the Higgs boson is a high priority. Likewise, a precise estimate of the structure of the proton is critical in understanding the details of proton-proton collisions. All of these questions will be investigated by Professors Kidonakis and Guzzi. In particular, this research will involve state-of-the-art calculations which will improve theoretical predictions for the production of top quarks and the Higgs particle, and which will increase our knowledge of the structure of the proton. The project will thus advance the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of elementary particles and their interactions, and the search for new physics. The results of this research will be widely disseminated through publication in refereed journals and presentations at international conferences and workshops. This project will also have significant broader impacts. It will involve students as well as a postdoctoral researcher in fundamental research, and thereby provide critical training for junior physicists in this field. Outreach activities in the wider community will promote knowledge of physics to the public. More technically, the goal of the research project is to develop and implement formalisms that can improve theoretical predictions of higher-order QCD corrections for a large number of processes at the LHC and future colliders as well as the determination of parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the proton. Resummations of soft-gluon corrections will be performed for total and differential cross sections for processes involving top quarks, including processes with three-particle final states in single-particle-inclusive kinematics such as top production in association with electroweak and Higgs bosons, and other processes in the Standard Model and in models of new physics. Soft anomalous dimensions will be calculated for various processes to three-loop accuracy. Moreover, these precision calculations will be used together with selected high-precision hadron collider measurements in dedicated global QCD analyses to constrain heavy-flavor PDFs. Heavy-flavor schemes and factorization theorems in hadronic collisions will be studied, and the impact of processes that involve heavy-quark production in association with a vector boson on the determination of heavy-quark PDFs will be explored. All of these calculations are important for precision studies of the top quark and the Higgs boson, for the exploration of electroweak symmetry breaking and the search for new physics at the LHC and future colliders, as well as for deeper knowledge of the content of the proton, which is a dominant source of uncertainty in precision hadron collider physics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.